The Nutcracker
by lilo5010
Summary: Modern Version : It's Christmas Eve at the Silberhaus residence and they're throwing a party! At that party, Clara's  Fake Uncle gives her a nutcracker. At first she's mad, but she has a crazy dream that makes her appreciate it and Christmas after all.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

~~~The Dinner Party~~~

"Welcome…Glad you've come…Hello…Welcome…" I stood by the door and greeted our guests. My father, the mayor, had invited some friends and important peoples to join us at our house. It wasn't my idea of "fun", but I had to come, and my uncle was coming. He isn't my true uncle; really a family friend. But he always gave me gifts and sorts from his around the world travels, and supposedly he was going to give me something special since I am now thirteen.

"Clara," My brother, Fritz, (his real name is Fitzgerald, but everyone calls him Fritz or Fitz.) came up to me, "Mother wants you in the kitchen." Excited to leave the uncomfortable duty of manning the door, I quickly gave Fritz the door and rushed to the kitchen.

My mom was putting the finishing touches on the main dish. "Hi, sweetie. Can you help and set up the tables? Remember knifes and spoons on the right, forks on the left. Oh, and napkins under the—"

"I know, Mother." I laughed and took the utensils to the Long Table. It didn't take me long to set it, and all I could do was wait. There were about 100 people all ready here. I honestly didn't want to stay, but Mother said I couldn't go to my room. I had to be "social" according to her. I could have been social at the movies with my best friends, Victoria and Mia, but Mother insisted it would have been rude if I wasn't here so I had to cancel my plans for this boring party. I didn't know any of the kids here, and didn't plan to. Really all I had was Fritz, but he made friends with the important peoples' children quickly leaving me alone. So I sat on a stool near the door and watched the party go on.

"Well you don't seem to be having much fun." A familiar voice said from behind me.

"Uncle!" I exclaimed as I turned around to see the whack-a-doodle with clothes on from different parts of the world. He was wearing a traditional Russian outfit today. "Peculiar, but it fits you." I gave him a once-over and then a hug.

"I've got your present right here." He patted his lumpy satchel.

"Ooo, can I see it now?" I asked anxiously.

"Why are you _Russian _to see it? Get it Rushin', Russian?" He chuckled at his own joke.

"Yes, very funny, Uncle." I giggled at his silliness.

"Don't worry, dear. I'll present it to you by the end of the night. Now where are your parents?" He asked me.

"Mother's in the kitchen and Father's talking to his boss." I told him. Uncle nodded and headed to the kitchen.

I went back to my stool and watched the party go by. At the end, when all of our guest started to leave, Uncle stood in middle of the Grand Room and said, "Clara Silberhaus, may you please come here?" I ran over in excitement. Fritz came over in curiosity along with my mother and father. Funny how someone could say just your name and everyone comes along anyway. As I stood in front of Uncle, he reached into his satchel and said, "I now present to you, your Christmas gift."

I gasped in excitement before it came out. But when it did, I went from a smile to a frown. In Uncle's hands was a wooden doll with a beard and creepy look on its face. "A Nutcracker Doll? Uncle how young do you think I am? Six? Uncle, I'm thirteen; I don't play with dolls!" I said furiously.

"Clara!" Mother said sternly.

"It's alright, Mona. I figured she would say that." Uncle chuckled.

"Then why did you give me this if you knew I would hate it?" I said, words just spilling out of my mouth.

"Clara, that's enough." Father said angrily.

"Richard, it's fine. Now, Clara. I got it for you because it has something magical about it that you'll understand later." Uncle assured me, and I believed him. Uncle was always a mysterious man, never being in one place for long.

"Hey, where's my present?" Fritz asked.

"Fritz, my boy I'm afraid I don't have anything for you. Nothing really seemed perfect for you. Don't worry, child. I'll for sure get you one later. Alright, Silberhauses. I must go now. It was nice seeing you. Merry Christmas!" Uncle said as he grabbed his coat and silly Russian hat and walked out of the door.

"That Drosselmann is something." Mother shook her head and Mother and Father left to finish cleaning leaving me and a very jealous-looking Fritz.

In one swift motion, Fritz grabbed to nutcracker from my hand. "Hey!" I shouted and chased him. "Give it back!" I finally caught him and grabbed for the head. Fritz held the legs. We yanked back and forth until, _pop! _The nutcracker's head and body were detached. "See what you did?" I yelled at Fritz.

"If you hadn't pulled on it, it would have been fine!" He yelled back.

"Yeah, well if you hadn't run off with it, we wouldn't be in this situation!" I argued. We kept going back and forth until Mother came back.

"I leave you children alone for one minute…" She shook her head disappointedly as she took the body and head. "Fritz, apologize." She said to him sternly.

"Sorry." He grumbled.

"And Clara, this is nothing a little super glue can't fix." I followed mother to her craft box and watched her as she glued it back together. "See? Good as new." She said. "Now, I know it's Christmas Eve, but no messing with it until tomorrow." She put it under the tree. I got dressed for bed after then. I made sure everyone was sleeping before I headed back to the tree. I sat there, examining it until I finally, fell asleep.

**Hope you enjoyed chapter one. This is as accurate as possible considering I just saw the ballet. Good tithing to you were ever you are! Oh, and _24 days 'til Christmas!_**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

~~~The Dream~~~

I awoke in the dead of night. My nutcracker was no longer beside me. _That's strange, _I thought to myself. As I stood from my spot where I had slept, an ominous fog began to appear._ There is something wrong._ Then a mouse the size of my 5 year-old cousin scurried through the living room. I rubbed my eyes. "I must be seeing things." I said aloud, but then another came and scurried across. "Mother! Father! Fritz!" I cried.

The sound of marching and swords clinking together filled the room. I could have sworn I saw a life-sized toy soldier. Turning around, I found out that an army of mice had accumulated behind me. I stood there frozen as they looked at me with beady eyes.

"Don't eat me!" I yelled, but they charged anyway. I was sure they were going to rip me to shreds, but they simply brushed passed me. They were after something else. I turned around again and saw that a battle between mice and toy soldiers had begun.

I stepped to the side as the battle raged on. "This is nuts!" I said aloud to no one in particular. The strange thing was how mother, father, or Fritz hadn't come downstairs yet. It was a pretty loud battle that not even the heaviest of sleepers could bypass the noise.

"Huzzah!" A male voice called from the left side of the living room. I looked over to see my nutcracker, now maybe the size of a high school boy, fighting a very large rat with a crown on.

"The Rat King!" I thought. I watched them as they fought. The Nutcracker had a good counter attack, but the Rat King quickly defended against it and knocked the sword out of the Nutcracker's hand. Knocking him the ground, the Rat King was about to finish off the Nutcracker.

"Hey, Rat King!" I yelled so that he would turn around. He did. It was just the distraction need that let the Nutcracker hop off the ground, grab his sword and drive it through the Rat King's back. The Rat King doubled over, and died. The mice no longer with a king scurried off in terror. The toy soldiers cheered.

"Thank you!" The Nutcracker came over and kissed my hand like an old timey medieval would.

I blushed. "I just didn't want you beheaded and almost killed before Christmas." I said.

Someone clapped from the right side of the living room as if they just came through the dining room. "Well done, Clara." said Uncle.

I gasped, "Did you have anything to do with this?"

He nodded. "Didn't I tell you the Nutcracker was magical? Anyway, I wanted to reward your bravery by letting you and the Nutcracker go through the Land of Snow, then finally the Kingdom of Sweets."

"But Uncle I…"

Uncle offered out his hand. "Come," and I followed.


End file.
